Compost Pedallers is a 100% bike-powered compost recycling program in Austin, Texas.

If you see a grubby-looking guy walking away from your neighbor’s house with a green bucket full of trash, don’t worry. He’s not a thief.

Paul Wilson is an employee at Compost Pedallers, an east Austin company that uses bicycles to collect their customers’ compost for a small fee and funnels it directly to micro-farms and community gardens throughout the area.

Wilson moved to Austin all the way from Chicago to work at Compost Pedallers.

“I love getting to see where our food comes from and how we can make it in our own backyards and how we can feed ourselves in a healthy, organic way without having to go to Whole Foods and spend your whole paycheck,” Wilson said.

Compost Peddler Paul Wilson begins his bike route.

“Compost is anything that was once living that’s not meat or dairy,” Wilson said. “It’s any fresh, organic material, like banana peels or apple cores."

Wilson cleans out a compost bucket to give back to the homeowners. Inside, he leaves a paper bag with a handwritten "Thanks!" on it.

Wilson begins his bike ride over to the local garden, Ten Acre Organics, to dispose of the compost he collected.

At Ten Acre Organics, compost is piled into three different sections in relation to their stages of the decomposition process.

Wilson begins to dump the new compost into its first bin.

"We've got everything from fruits and vegetables to dog hair and toe-nail clippings," Wilson said. "If it's natural, it can be compost."

This new pile of compost will stay in this pile for about a month until it becomes decomposed enough to move onto the next bin.

Dustin Fedako, the CEO and co-founder of the company, explained that the impetus behind the venture is to further the idea of sustainable living.

“If we went into your kitchen, and we dumped your trash on the ground, we would find that over 30 percent is not trash at all,” Fedako said. “It’s compostable material. So that means that one-third of the stuff that you’re hauling out of your house into the landfill is actually a valuable resource. We’re here to make sure that you never have to put your resources in the trash again and that you can be part of a system that takes those resources and enriches the community.”

“One thing that makes the Compost Pedallers unique is that we do 100 percent of our collections with bicycles,” Fedako said. “So we’re 100 percent bike-powered. That means that we run on fat instead of fossil fuels.The motto of the company is “More food, less waste, zero fossil fuels,” and that creed is taken very seriously.

“One thing that makes the Compost Pedallers unique is that we do 100 percent of our collections with bicycles,” Fedako said. “So we’re 100 percent bike-powered. That means that we run on fat instead of fossil fuels.

The process is simple. Compost Pedallers asks their customers to collect their compostable materials and place it in the green buckets emblazoned with the company logo that are provided them. A weekly pickup by one of the employees is carried out, in which the organic materials are collected and the bucket is cleaned. The employee will then bike those materials over to the local gardens and micro-farms to be used for compost.

“You’re really just mimicking what nature does at the bottom of the forest,” Wilson said. “Things fall down. Fruits and leaves cover it. It stays the right temperature. It stays out of the sun, it rots, it cooks down and those things go back into the soil for the tree to pull up as nutrients.”

There are few limits as to what is considered compostable material.

“Compost is anything that was once living that’s not meat or dairy,” Wilson said. “It’s any fresh, organic material, like banana peels or apple cores. We always joke that if you shave your dog, you can put the dog hairs in there. You can put your nail clippings in there. I don’t think they will add up to much weight, but pretty much anything that was once living can go into your compost bin.”

The most ideal mix of organic material for compost are “greens,” which is slang for fruit peels, and “browns,” meaning leaves, bags, shredded newspapers and other such things. The materials meld together for weeks and eventually rot into what the pedallers term “black gold,” or compost.

“That is the richest thing you could add to your garden,” Wilson said. “It has the most nutrients.”

The business has recently created a system called “The Loop,” which rewards customers for using their services. For each pound of scraps given to Compost Pedallers, a customer receives a point. Accumulated points can be spent at the Loop Store, which includes goods and services from other local businesses.

The company is a for-profit business, but they have goals beyond just making money. Eric Goff, CFO and co-founder, explained that educating the community is also something that Compost Pedallers strives to do.

“Our bicycles and our actions in the community are a way for people to learn sometimes even what composting is,” Goff said. “From there, most people really want to get involved.”

In the end, Goff said, it’s really about encouraging people to live a new way of life.

“Composting to me is a way to be directly involved in the natural systems of life,” Goff said. “When you compost, you know that your food waste breaks down and becomes a resource, and that’s really exciting to see it happen right before your eyes.”

UT student, Tyler Grant participated in this year’s UT drag competition and performed to the hit single, “Long John Blues.”

By Erin Spencer, Jessica Garcia, and Raisa Tillis

Austin,TX-Early Saturday morning on April 11, 2015 in the West Campus area of the University of Texas, Tyler Grant, a public health junior was denied service at Whataburger after a night of hanging with friends.

Grant, who identifies as gender queer, left a drag show with some friends and went to a Whataburger restaurant to get a bite to eat and enjoy great company.

When Grant arrived to Whataburger, the police officer at the door immediately turned him away and told him he couldn’t enter because of the outfit he was wearing.

Grant had on cheetah print lingerie with five layers of panty hose and some thigh pads.

The police officer told him that his outfit wasn’t appropriate for entering the establishment.

After Grant questioned the police officer, the officer then went to get the manager who was working the nightshift to discuss the situation with her.

“I don’t think my outfit had anything to do with why I couldn’t get inside of Whataburger,” said Grant. “I realized he didn’t let me in because he realized I wasn’t a women, I got really really pissed.”

Grant said that at first he couldn’t go inside Whataburger because he didn’t have shoes on, but when the officer told him to put them on and he heard his voice things went south from there.

Later that night, Grant got on Facebook and made a post about the incident that occurred at Whataburger, expressing his frustration and disappointment with Whataburger and the office on duty.

Wilfrido Rodriguez, a member of the Delta Lambda Phi and one of Grant’s friends, was shocked when he saw what happened to Grant early that morning at Whataburger.

“It really made me frustrated with Whataburger just because the fact that they were judging him based on clothing made me really mad,” said Rodriguez. “The fact that the police officer neglected him after he found out he was a guy hurt me to see that he had to have this experience happen to him.”

After hours of responses from family and friends, Grant’s video went viral all over Facebook.

The next day Grant went back to Whataburger to talk to the same manager about why he felt discriminated when he was denied service early Saturday morning.

Thinking he may get the truth this time around, the manager still stuck with the same answer she gave him before. She wouldn’t let him in because of his clothing.

Austin has a nondiscrimination ordinance that prevents public accommodations from discriminating against individuals based on gender identity.

Grant went to Student Legal Services for advice on possible legal action for this incident.

He recently met with the city of Austin this week to file the official complaint against Whataburger. He said that it went well and Whataburger would be notified within 10 days of the investigation. Although there isn’t any punishment for breaking the nondiscrimination ordinance, Grant just wants them to know that what they did was wrong and hurtful.

On May 1, the UT drag competition brought in more than 100 UT students to the show.

This was UT drag contestant, Tyler Grant's second drag competition.

These were the shoes that Tyler Grant was carrying in his hand the night he went to Whataburger and was refused entry.

Grant before his big performance of the night.

For his performance, Grant lip-synched and danced to "Long John Blues."

The five judges sat across the stage critiquing each talent after their performances.

The UT Drag show occurs every year with different people participating in the competition.

This year, a total of 14 women competed at the UT Drag Show competition.

Contestant Kelly Kline designed her very own outfit this year.

For many UT drag participants, this was their first drag competition.

Naomi Tipton and Bellebottom competed for first place.

The first place winner took home the title of Miss UT Drag Queen along with this sparkly silver crown

In an effort to make changes to Austin’s Guadalupe Street, popularly known as The Drag, the city’s transportation department is seeking feedback from students and the community.

The official plans for changes, formally known as the Guadalupe Corridor Improvement Program, were initiated in 2014 by the transportation department.

Possible changes include the upgrading of sidewalks and an overall improvement in mobility and safety.

My Guadalupe, an organization at the University of Texas at Austin, was created in an effort to ensure that students’ opinions would be considered in the overall planning of the project.

“This organization began early in the semester in response to the low student turnout at a public meeting that the city hosted regarding the Guadalupe Corridor Improvement Program,” Jacob Brackmann said, a member of the organization. “Myself, along with a few other students and local stakeholders held a few preliminary meetings to decide what kind of organization we wanted to become and what our approach to the issue would be.”

Overall, the organization hopes that the city’s plan for improving the street will place an emphasis on pedestrians.

“Most Austin transportation engineers might be able to give a traffic count for the number of people in cars that utilize the street on a daily basis, but those same engineers arguably might not be able to give a count for the number of people that utilize the street by walking,” Brackmann said. “In our thinking, we argue that an individual that walks deserves just as much attention in a planning or design process as individuals that drive.”

Several changes that the organization would like to see include the expansion of sidewalks, the planting of trees to provide shade and the improvement of safety regarding the interaction between pedestrians and individuals in cars.

“Simply put, we would like for Guadalupe to become a wonderful urban public space for people to interact with and enjoy,” Brackmann said. “We want to ensure that the improvements focus a lot on pedestrians, as well as other methods of human movement.”

On Thursday, April 30, the city’s transportation department held an open meeting on campus to discuss the current state of the planning process with project manager Alan Hughes. Students and members of the community were encouraged to attend and provide input on changes for Guadalupe Street.

Few of the takeaways from the meeting include an emphasis on pedestrian safety and improving the overall appearance of the entire area. The city also plans to hold another open meeting in the fall after receiving designs from consultants.

“They hope to have project proposals with cost expectations established and ready for potential funding by May of 2016,” Brackmann said.

Urban Outfitters will be taking over all the properties to the right of it for corporate offices.

The intersection at 24th Street and Guadalupe has evolved dramatically over the past decades.

Mellow Mushroom has officially closed down.

DSC_0415

Mellow Mushroom has "sold their last pizza."

The block between 24th Street and 25th Street is about to undergo a massive transformation.

Guadalupe Street, commonly known as the Drag, borders the University of Texas at Austin campus.

The University of Texas at Austin Co-op owns the space they reside in them making them immune to rising rent on the drag.

Photo Courtesy of The Austin American Statesman

The Varsity Theater used to reside on the drag and was a local landmark. It was torn down decades ago but the sign still remains.

Photo Courtesy of the Austin American Statesman

Bevo Books used to reside on the drag but went out of business due to the increase in rent and rise in chains on Guadalupe Street.

In recent times, Austin, Texas has become known for its pricey music festivals, enormous Whole Foods headquarters and the hype of the weak mixed drinks on Sixth Street, but we must not forget the cowboys and hippie musicians that created this funky place back in the day.

The City of Austin has long recognized that music is a defining element of Austin’s culture, however as the city is in a rapid growth phase and the cost of living skyrockets, many worry the Texas Capitol will lose its charming historical music touch.

As music is an integral part of what many around the world consider Austin to be, several music venues specific to Austin have remained dedicated to maintaining the southern music charm.

“There has been a trend of out-pricing the housing market, to the point that musicians that could struggle to survive here now just struggle and they don’t survive,” said Diane Scott, an Austinite who has worked at the famous Continental Club for decades.

A Broken Spoke sign displays the honky tonk’s pride of its historic success as both a dance hall and restaurant.

In 1964 upon returning from the service, James White came back to Austin. At 25-years-old, after some soul searching, and reminiscing on his country childhood days, he found himself on South Lamar Blvd. staring into rolling green hills, imagining what would be the start of 50 years of the best Honky-Tonk in Texas. Today, Broken Spoke sits at that very spot and is flanked by condo complexes on one of the busiest streets in the Capitol city.

The City of Austin was home to 208,475 people when James first began laying the foundation of the historic country dance hall in 1964. Fifty years later, the population has more than quadrupled, amounting to over 865,504 people in 2014, according to the US Census Bureau.

James White has made it his life’s work to create and maintain a true Texas dance hall.

“Over 50 years I’ve been out here, whatever it takes to keep a honky-tonk going,” White said.

While Austin has become known for it’s trendy downtown bar scene, White is determined to keep the country bands playing and the boots on the dance floor for as long as possible.

“I never want to lose the heart and the soul of the Broken Spoke,” White said.

In 1957, The Continental Club was established less than two miles down Congress Ave from the Texas State Capitol. At the time, the upscale private club featured nationally touring bands and was hailed as the first venue in Travis County to sell liquor by the drink, after originally encouraging its visitors to bring their own liquor, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

A true Austinite, Diane Scott has worked backdoor security and band hospitality at The Continental Club for 22 years.

Scott is concerned that the expense that comes along with living in Austin is pushing away musicians that would otherwise love to live and perform here.

“Today it’s really hard to follow a dream that takes you down a non paying road. Most musicians are leaving Austin altogether or moving out to the suburbs,” Scott said.

Bands have been playing at Threadgill’s outdoor stage since 1933.

When country music lover Kenneth Threadgill opened a gas station north of the Austin city limits in 1933, he soon applied for a beer license and he began growing a new favorite beer joint for traveling musicians.

“Not to mention it was here [Threadgill’s] where Janis Joplin developed her brassy style that would propel her to become the first female rock and roll superstar,” according to their website.

In 1996, Threadgill’s was opened in South Austin.

Eddie Wilson, who has owned the restaurant since the mid 1970s has made a distinction between the two locations: the original location on North Lamar has the theme of Austin between the 1930’s and the 1960’s. The south location celebrates the history of the Armadillo World Headquarters, opened by Wilson, and the 1970’s.

After taking over the popular eatery and music joint, Eddie Wilson has seen it through the past 40 plus years, witnessing the rapid growth of Austin.

“Now when you go on Mt Bonnel you look out at rolling roof tops instead of rolling hills,” Wilson said.

Culture and creativity are the basis of what Austin stands for, however as these historic venues rapidly lose their chance to survive only time will tell if the quirky Texas Capitol will truly remain the “Live Music Capitol of the world.”

As Austin’s population continues to rise, so do the construction zones on the city’s roadways.

Between 2011 and 2016 Austin is expected to have a growth percentage of 6.1 percent, according to Forbes, making Austin one of the fastest growing cities in the country. And to combat the extra population, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority have already begun several construction projects they believe will increase mobility and traffic in the Austin area.

Cars heading southbound on Mopac become stuck in traffic due in part to the highway’s expansion project.

But many local environmental groups believe there is a significant threat to the local ecology as construction projects develop.

One of the projects is the Mopac South expansion project, which would build two toll lanes in each direction from Cesar Chavez to Slaughter Lane in addition to a double-decker bridge crossing Lady Bird Lake. The plans also pass over a segment of the Edward’s Aquifer, which runs into Barton Springs.

Activists against the construction said the project would increase pollution in the spring’s waters with the rise in traffic. According to Keep Mopac Local, an initiative against Mopac’s construction plans, the project would add up to 60,000 travelers per day in addition to the 130,000 cars that already use the highway. The organization said the additional travel would increase urban runoff and pollution in the Barton Springs waters.

“The water that goes into this aquifer doesn’t have any sort of filtration so pollution that goes into this aquifer goes into Barton Springs,” said Aubrey Cravotta, an outreach coordinator with Save Our Springs Alliance, which is part of Keep Mopac Local.

A man dives into Barton Springs Pool, a man-made swimming facility fed by the springs.

Cravotta said one of the consequences of any increased pollution is the further endangerment of species living in Barton Springs, including the Barton Springs Salamander.

The Barton Springs Salamander, a small, completely aquatic salamander, became formally recognized in 1993. The salamander only lives in Barton Springs in Austin, but has become increasing less visible in the Zilker Park waters.

In late April 1997, the Barton Springs Salamander was listed among the U.S. Endangered Species after its population sharply declined entering the 1990s. According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the salamander had a large population in the early 1970s, but has since fallen due to pollution in the waters.

The waters the salamanders are found in are feed by a small segment of the Edwards Aquifer, which is influenced by rainwater and water flow. However, this also presents an opportunity for contaminates to run into the water that can endanger the species living there.

Most species of salamanders, once they reach adulthood become terrestrial, no longer keeping their external gills. However, the Barton Springs Salamander stays aquatic for its entire life, retaining its juvenile characteristics and external gills to breathe.

The Barton Springs salamander is one of the two endangered species that can only be found in Barton Springs.

If pollution and other contaminates, which Cravotta said has the ability to increase with the construction project, inhibit the waters, the salamander’s ability to breathe will be prohibited, which has resulted in its population decline in past decades.

“That’s why the species was put on the endangered species list because of these true threats of and possibility of contaminants affecting the entire species at once,” said Dee Ann Chamberlain, an environmental scientist with the Austin Watershed Protection Department.

To help combat the declining population, the City of Austin has set up a Captive Breeding programwithin the Austin Watershed Protection Department, which helps maintain the Barton Springs Salamander’s population.

“The idea is to have a population of the species in captivity that you could introduce into the wild if something happened to the species,” Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain also said the Captive Breeding program helps the city better understand how the species lives. Since the Barton Springs Salamander lives mostly underground, the program allows for the species habitation to be seen first hand.

“Parts of their life history is difficult to understand looking at them in the wild so we’ve had to study their life history working with them in captivity,” Chamberlain said. “It’s like thinking of it as putting together different pieces of a puzzle to put together all the different parts.”

Currently, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority and the Texas Department of Transportation are in the last year of an environmental study that looks at the environment impacts that the expansion project could cause. At the end of the year, if the study finds to have any impact on the Barton Springs Salamander or any other endangered species, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority said it would take steps to fix them.

“At the end of the year, there is going to be a final report were all those issues will be identified,” said Rick L’Amie, the communications director with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority. “It’s too early to say what [the issues] are right now because we are still studying it.”

Austin Blind Salamander

The Austin blind salamander is one of two endangered species found only at Barton Springs.

Barton Springs Salamander

The Barton Springs Salamander is one of two endangered species found only at the springs.

Salamander Researcher

Dee Ann Chamberlain, a biologist at the Austin Nature and Science Center, presents her documentary on the Barton Springs and Austin blind salamanders.

Salamander Research

The salamander research facility at the Austin Science and Nature Center.

Sunny Day at Barton Springs Pool

A man dives into Barton Springs Pool, a man-made swimming facility fed by the springs.

'No Trespassing'

A "no trespassing" sign near Eliza Spring, one of the four springs at the Barton Springs complex.

Outside Barton Springs

Barton Springs is home to both the Barton Springs and the Austin blind salamander.

Mopac Traffic and Construction

Cars slow down on Mopac as new lanes are being constructed.

Mopac Construction

A construction work vehicle blocks off a northbound lane on Mopac.

Mopac Construction

A new Mopac lane under construction on the highway over 45th Street.

Mopac Construction

A construction vehicle working on the Mopac expansion project.

Mopac Sign

A construction sign for the Mopac expansion project.

Mopac Traffic

Cars drive past a Mopac expansion sign near on Loop 1 near Far West Boulevard.

Bluebonnets and wildflowers decorate fields along the Texas highways. Trees are lush with leaves and flowerbeds bloom throughout the city of Austin. Those seeds you planted after the last frost are just starting to sprout and that miniature herb garden looks promising for a bountiful summer harvest.

Spring has finally arrived and while the days are bright with color and warm with sunlight… the itching, sneezing, eye-watering side of the spring is well on its way to changing your “flowery” feelings about the season.

“I get an itchy throat, my eyes itch, I sneeze constantly, and I’m always having to blow my nose,” said Collin Hayes, an environmental science major studying at Austin Community College.

Hayes, like many other citizens in the Austin area describes his daily battle with the spring allergens that recently swept through Austin, leaving piles of debris on the ground and pollen floating in the air. His most severe allergy symptoms peak during the spring time when trees, grass and wildflowers bloom.

Science defines it as Allergic Rhinitis or “hay fever” but the common term is “seasonal allergies.” Symptoms vary from person to person. Some may experience the few occasional sneezes, while others require a doctor visit for prescriptions to relieve their pain.

With a seemingly high number of people who suffer from spring allergies in Austin, the question remains if symptoms are strictly correlated to the quantity of allergens we expose ourselves to in the local environment. According to Doctor Jeffrey Latimer with theUniversity Healthy Services, while the case of allergies is extrinsic by nature, there is always a combination of other factors.

“You can have a predisposition from your family history that will make you more susceptible to [allergens],” said Latimer. “Some people are atopic, meaning there’s an inherited tendency towards allergies, asthma and [skin irritations.] If you are atopic, everything is going to be worse because you inherited that tendency.”

Some Austin residents, however, attribute their symptoms mainly to the warm, central Texas environment. According to Hayes, his allergies seemed to have worsened since living in the city for a few years.

“I feel like I’ve definitely suffered more allergies since being here,” said Hayes. “I lived in Houston for a bit and believe any symptoms I had there were more related to the horrible air quality than specific allergens.”

Latimer also mentioned a similar personal experience.

“When I first moved back to Texas 20 years ago, I didn’t have any [allergy problems for years],” said Latimer. “All of a sudden I started getting some significant symptoms after that.”

To prepare for and manage allergy symptoms, it helps to be aware of the specific allergens abundant to the region and know when they are most prevalent. In Austin, yellow pollen from the oak trees is abundant and easily visible in early spring. Often, that is what you see blanketing the tops of vehicles and other surfaces. “Cedar pollen is up there…and so is grass during the warmer months,” said Latimer.

And for the best possible prevention to those annoying sniffles…“avoidance is the best thing for allergic rhinitis,” said Latimer. “Like cats for instance, if you’re allergic to cats, most people have common sense to not go around a cat or whatever it is they are allergic to. Avoidance is number one.”

Avoidance just might also be the hardest medicine to prescribe. When asked if he would trade the beauty of spring and all of its pollinated nature to remain allergy free, Hayes responded that it is something he would never give up.

“Part of the reason my allergies are constantly acting up is because I love spending time outside and enjoying everything the region has to offer,” said Hayes. “My allergies are something I choose to manage with medication and other remedies when I can. I would not trade the natural beauty of Central Texas for relief from my allergy symptoms.”

IMG_1952

Flowers in the Green Belt in Austin are very vibrant during spring.

Wildflowers are prevalent by all the highways.

IMG_1958

Flowers in the Green Belt in Austin are very vibrant during spring.

Yellow pollen covers the cars during the spring time.

The Green belt in Austin is full of plant life and pollen.

Lush greenery thrives at the Turtle Pond on UT campus.

Mold covers the side of UT's greenhouse on campus.

A bluebonnet grows on UT campus.

How do your spring allergies compare to others in the Austin area? Check out the results to our springtime allergy survey to find out!

The garden presently grows a variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as five different fruit trees. With over 30 individual plots, students, or faculty and staff, may request to use one of these plots and grow an assortment of different foods from the seeds up. The Concho Community Garden provides the seeds to the growers, and educates them on the importance of gardening.

“The vision of the community garden is just to create educational space for people part of the UT community and the surrounding community,” said Mijae Grosman, an assistant coordinator at the Concho Community Gardens.

Currently, UT is also home to a Micro-Farm, which opened in 2012 and is completely student run. Unlike the micro-farm, which is geared to outsourcing the grown produce to the university and surrounding food shelters, the community gardens produce is given back to the growers themselves to cook and eat.

Community gardens and micro-farms help enrich a sense of community ownership and they foster the development of locally grown fruits and vegetables that are not normally available in urban areas. It is a healthy, inexpensive activity that helps bring together people in the community in a productive way.

Photo Credit: Samantha Rivera

“It creates solidarity within the community,” said Grosman. “It allows people to kind of have their own space and go to somewhere they are surrounded by living things and nature.”

Of the students the garden wishes to reach, the Concho Community Garden is also open and welcoming of teams and organizations wishing to join and look after their own plot.

Micki Smith-Stocker, a member of the group Habitat for Humanity, started volunteering with the Concho Community Gardens at the beginning of the spring semester. She said that she has worked with community gardens before, but is still getting valuable experience.

Community gardens are not uncommon, with over 10 urban farms and around 30 community gardens in the Austin area; the fresh food movement seems to be making headway. Educating the public is just the first step in creating more efficient gardens around the city.

Photo credit: Samantha Rivera

“One of my favorite things is learning about all the other things in the garden,” said Smith-Stocker. “I did not realize so many things were edible.”

Students and community volunteers currently oversee the day-to-day operations in the gardens, and gain knowledge from first hand experience. Those who volunteer at the community gardens get a better understanding of where their food comes from.

“It’s good to know where your food comes from,” said Nina Lobo, a Concho Community Garden volunteer, “its good to be connected, just to appreciate the earth and food and just realize how important it is.”

The University’s Take Back the Night event, a community rally supporting survivors of sexual assault, is a far cry from tradition.

Around 250 students milled about in front of the Tower, eating free pizza and listening to local Austin band Messages play, instead of marching through the Austin streets with banners decrying sexual assault. Tables from various student and LGBTQ support groups bordered the rally’s perimeter, handing out information on mental health counseling and support groups instead of placards and signs. It may not be a traditional Take Back the Night, but Erin Burrows said the style works for UT.

“We have adapted it to our campus,” said Burrows, the prevention and outreach specialist for Voices Against Violence. “Typically it’s a march throughout the community, but we really stay here on the main mall, and we focus on our resource fair and speak out for survivors.”

Burrows said Voices Against Violence, which spreads awareness and provides support for on-campus survivors as part of the University’s Counseling and Mental Health Center, has held the event at UT for well over a decade. But she said Take Back the Night as an organized event started much earlier.

“It actually started in the 1970s as part of the women’s liberation and feminist movements,” Burrows said.

According to their website, the Take Back the Night Foundation formed in the late 1960s as a joint coalition between European and American community organizers. The foundation organized early marches in 1973, protesting pornography in San Francisco and the serial murders of women of color in Los Angeles.

The first official “Take Back the Night” march occurred in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1975, after microbiologist Susan Alexander Speeth was stabbed to death while walking home alone at night. After a similar yet unrelated “Reclaim the Night” march in Belgium in 1976, marches and rallies spread across Europe and Asia, reaching India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Keynote speaker Paula X Rojas, a Chilean community organizer who herself is a survivor of sexual violence, said organized rallies like Take Back the Night are important for the community because they break the silence surrounding sexual assault.

“Gender and sexual violence is often private, and because of patriarchy and the way society works we tend to want to keep it private because it’s ‘shameful,’” Rojas said. “And so making that leap of going public, sharing our story, really cracks the system in a way that services and brochures and programs don’t. It cracks the problem in a deeper way.”

While the march began as a women-only event — and has taken flack from critics about its treatment of other survivors, particularly male — Take Back the Night is now inclusive of all sexual assault survivors, regardless of gender. Burrows said the University’s event is no different, even though only one male survivor chose to speak.

“We talk about sexual assault no matter what the gender of the survivor is,” Burrows said.

The amount of support for survivors of sexual violence, along with the insistence that the event is a “safe space” for them to feel comfortable in, attracts many LGBTQ organizations both student and local. Brin Kieffer, a member of local LGBTQ organization StandOut!, said she’s attended the event for the last three years.

“I love this event because it provides support for survivors, and thus my organization and I decided to table this year,” Kieffer said. While she said she enjoys the speakers, her favorite part comes during the performances beforehand.

“There’s usually a lot of profound poetry that goes on,” Kieffer said. “I find it inspiring.”

DSC_5484

Take Back the Night, held Wednesday, April 4 in front of the Tower, is a public event that welcomes the local community to attend and participate. It brings together university community members committed to building a safer campus.

DSC_5497

Members of the Not On My Campus - UT Chapter pose in front of their booth during the Take Back the Night event.

DSC_5509

Austin band, Messages, performs as people arrive to the event and browse the booths.

DSC_5510

Event visitors had the opportunity to fill out cards with words of wisdom and encouragement for victims of sexual assault.

DSC_5514

Event visitors had the opportunity to fill out cards with words of wisdom and encouragement for victims of sexual assault.

DSC_5522

A member of the Texas Army takes a slice of pizza while talking to a Voices Against Violence volunteer. Complimentary food and refreshments were provided to everyone who attended the event.

DSC_5525

UT students Courtney Nielsen and Ana Cruz sign up for more information about a booth organization.

DSC_5579

Keynote speaker Paula X Rojas opens the presentations with her own encounter with sexual assault. After she spoke, an open mic event began where anyone could sign up to speak and tell their story.

Longhorn Startup Demo Day was held in the Lady Bird Auditorium on April 30, 2015. Photo by: Rebecca Salazar

It is difficult to run a business, but trying to balance school adds a whole other level of stress. However, Sid Gutter is one out of the handful of college students who has accepted the challenge of doing both.

Sid Gutter is a sophomore liberal arts honors student majoring in economics and history at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the founder of Entrée, a startup company that is creating a new and enhanced restaurant operating system.

“I never ever in my life thought I would start a business or work in restaurant technology,” Gutter said.

The idea was inspired when Gutter was at a restaurant with his parents. Tired of long wait times, waiting on food and slow check out times, he thought there must be a way to fix this problem. Gutter then started talking to numerous owners, managers and waiters to gather insight.

“After a month of that it became clear that there is a problem, and maybe it’s not that crazy to think I as a student can actually solve the problem,” Gutter said.

What Gutter uncovered was that traditional restaurant operations systems are clunky and expensive. This led him to creating Entrée, a cost-effective system that combines point-of-sales technology and smarter analytics through carefully crated interfaces. Eventually with this technology, waiters will be able to check out a table by using just a mobile phone or tablet, and one day may eliminate the need for waiters completely.

“It’s not necessarily the sexiest industry,” Brian Alford said. “But if you look at their presentation and the way they bring a lot more advanced user interfaces, it is really an exciting change for restaurants.”

Alford is a small business lawyer as well as Gutter’s Longhorn Startup Lab mentor.

“I have an undergraduate degree in business,” Alford said. “As a lawyer, I can represent companies at the early stages by helping them make more business level decisions and not just legal decisions.”

http://multimedianewsroom.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Brian-Alford.mp3
Longhorn Startup Lab is a course offered by the university, so students who are attempting to start a company can get course credit for their efforts. The course includes weekly mentoring sessions as a free co-working membership at Capital Factory. At the end of the spring semester, they host Longhorn Demo Day to showcase their accomplishments.

“It’s a large advertising event for young startups that don’t usually get the chance to get their ideas out to the public,” Stephen Franklin said.

This year’s Demo Day was held on April 30. Thirteen different student startups went on stage to pitch their company. Franklin, a senior mechanical engineering student, was there to promote his product as a part of the company called Grey Matter.

“The dream is to have someone really interested in our product and invest in our idea,” Franklin said. “But really it is to get our name out there and to promote our product.”

Franklin’s product is an athletic mouth guard that can identify when concussions occur as well as track an athlete’s concussion history by storing data in the cloud. With the help of this class, they were able to make a functioning prototype to showcase at the event.

“This class itself provides us with a ton of mentors and great connections that really helped us establish our product,” Franklin said.

Pamela Valdes is an exchange student from Mexico City and creator of Beek, a social network for book lovers in Latin America.

“It is a place for discovering, discussing and recommending books between followers and friends,” Valdes said. “It is like a Facebook, but for people who like to read.”

Valdes created Beek for a MIT contest about a year ago. She did not win, and in result, all of her team left. She had to start from scratch and build a whole new team, which was probably one of the most difficult things she has had to overcome.

“Believing in yourself when no one else does is the hardest thing as an entrepreneur,” Valdes said.

Longhorn Startup Lab provides the students with many resources, but also a place for them to see other entrepreneurs their age struggle, as well as succeed, balancing school and other work.

“I think this is really an example of the great community here at UT and what is possible with student entrepreneurs here on campus,” Gutta said.

Even after the semester ends, many of these startups will continue to grow and develop. Because for these entrepreneurs their projects are no longer just a school assignment, it is their future.

The athletic mouth guard created by Grey Matter, a student start up, can identify when a concussion occurs and can track an athlete’s concussion history by sorting data in the cloud. Photo by: Kimberly Carmona

Members from the Austin community awaited a lecture from the chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Dell, Michael Dell. Photo by: Rebecca Salazar

The goal at Patricia’s Table is to expand minds and taste buds for adults and children. Photo by: Kimberly Carmona

Patricia’s Table hosts many events to encourage the Austin community to participate in cooking festivities. Photo by: Kimberly Carmona

Kids are encouraged to make and try new food at Patricia’s Table. “The goal here is to introduce kids to fruits and vegetables that they may not know,” Patricia Tamminga said. Photo by: Kimberly Carmona

The teaching kitchen uses only local ingredients and grows their own vegetables and herbs in their own backyard kitchen garden. Photo by: Kimberly Carmona

Patricia Tamminga uses Patricia’s Table to empower children to eat healthy by making fun, simple food in the kitchen. She uses locally-grown food from the Austin area as well as the garden near the building. She was a kindergarden teacher before starting Patricia’s Table.

Laura Donnelly and Alicia Rascon are co-founders of Latinitas with branches in Austin and El Paso. Photo by: Latinitas Archives

Young girls were invited to learn about video game design and development at the Code Chica Conference in 2014. Photo by: Latinitas Archives

Latinitas received the National Positive Impact Award at the 2015 Hispanicize Awards in Miami. Photo by: Latinitas Archives

During the 2014 Latinitas summer camp, girls were given a crash course on professional video equipment. Photo by: Latinitas Archives

After witnessing the lack of diversity in media outlets and lack of representation of Latina women in magazines, Laura Donnelly and Alicia Rascon wanted to fill that niche. They transformed their ideas in a UT graduate school class into Latinitas, a non-profit organization with locations in El Paso and Austin, which has been actively empowering Latina youth through media and technology for 13 years.